She was all angles and bones.
Her hand was
Wide as a bed slat and twice as hard.
Asking me why I couldn’t
Behave as well as Jem when she
Knew he was older.
Our battle were epic and
One sided. Calpurnia always won.
I knew her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.
And when she was furious,
Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic.
When she squinted down at me ,
The tiny lines
Around her eyes deepened.
She went over my patent leather shoes
With a cold biscuit until she saw
Her face in them
“I don’t want anybody sayin’ I don’t look after my children.”
Calpurnia scratched in her handbag and brought forth
A battered leather coin-purse. A dime
We can put ours in.
I felt Calpurnia’s hand on
My shoulder, at its pressure I
Said, “We thank you for letting us come.”
That Calpurnia led a modest double life
That never dawned on me. That idea
That she had a separate existence outside
Our household was a novel one.
Done by Boshen and Haoyu